tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16202529039296412702018-11-21T01:56:03.086-08:00ithankyouIthankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.comBlogger591125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-43042375591030750292018-11-18T12:50:00.002-08:002018-11-18T13:33:51.554-08:00Comrades in films… Silent Guns, Kennington Bioscope Great War Centenary Day
There’s film of history and film as history: films that are
essentially primary source in themselves, how else to view almost any cinema
after the Great War in which six million men served, 725,000 British servicemen
died and over 1.75 million were wounded, half of which left with life-changing injuries.
My great Uncle Alec lived the rest of his life with shrapnel
in his skull whilst my Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-86819786843015521782018-11-16T10:09:00.001-08:002018-11-16T10:38:39.495-08:00Days of future past… City Without Jews (1924), Barbican with Olga Neuwirth and PHACE Ensemble conducted by Nacho de Paz
In the pre-screening Q&A with Bryony Dixon, composer Olga
Neuwirth mentioned that she had just heard Theresa May say that political leadership
wasn’t about the “easy task” but about “the right task” in response to the people’s
will. It’s a phrase that the Austrian felt chimed very much with the decision
by the Chancellor in this film’s fictitious country of Utopia when, responding
to the Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-41672334891345522122018-11-15T05:32:00.002-08:002018-11-15T05:32:53.126-08:00DJ Midas vs DJ Canute… The Man from Mo'Wax (2018), BFI DVD and Blu-ray
“Create
your own universe, find your own identity. The rest is the product of your
environment…”
This film made me relive the same hope and disappointment I had with the build up to the production and release of UNKLE’s debut, Psyence
Fiction – DJ Shadow’s doing the music, Richard Ashcroft and Tom Yorke (!) are
collaborating; this has got to be
great but, in the end, too much and, at the Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-24268590945595295622018-11-12T06:27:00.005-08:002018-11-12T06:38:59.095-08:00The haunted screen… The Fall of the House of Usher (1928), BFI with Stephen Horne
“It is there, that she lives…”
There is a house and it’s got Ushers in it but any
resemblance between this film and Edgar Allen Poe’s story is purely surreal. Jean
Epstein’s take on the story reflects the writer’s style, his “totality” in
which every aspect of the tale has a bearing on the core narrative but it was, apparently, too much for co-scripter/assistant
director Luis Buñuel who Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-69126754147024368772018-11-05T03:16:00.000-08:002018-11-05T03:18:36.908-08:00Fire, walk with me… Love’s Crucible (1922), BFI with Stephen Horne
This was my third viewing of Victor Sjöström’s Love’s Crucible (aka Vem Dömer?), and there is more to see
each time.
I watched the film in Pordenone last year and at the
Giornate last month saw Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage) (1921) another
Sjöström film which may or may not have an overtly religious message: it was
interesting to compare the two. Vem
Dömer? is best translated as Who can
Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-61159881747675307492018-11-02T08:50:00.002-07:002018-11-04T04:06:07.207-08:00Dancing Queen… The Dumb Girl of Portici (1916), with John Sweeney, Cambridge Film Festival
The Lois Weber revival continues and this year’s Cambridge
Film Festival featured four films from a director increasingly rated alongside anyone in the second full decade of
film. Dumb Girl is her blockbuster
and is quite different from her social dramas like The Blot and Shoes even
though it includes some intricate characterisations. But here we get the chance
to see Weber with a big budget,Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-71879686067697823642018-10-22T16:31:00.002-07:002018-10-22T16:34:07.957-07:00The Godmother of Slapstick… Mabel Normand Shorts with Meg Morley Trio, BFI
Mabel was one of those who “made” screen comedy having, as
she said: “…no precedent, nothing to imitate… I had to cleave a new path to
laughter.” Whilst that sounds suspiciously like studio guff, it’s pretty much
what happened for a woman who wrote and directed her own films and mentored
Charlie Chaplin amongst others.
Arguments still rage – you know what cineastes are like –
about how Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-21882777892460217152018-10-22T08:24:00.003-07:002018-10-22T08:24:53.198-07:00Revolution in the head… Fragment of an Empire (1929), Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius, BFI London Film Festival 2018
This highly-skilled late Soviet silent, has been described
as one of the most important restorations of recent years and has already been
screened in San Francisco, Bonn and Munich before tonight’s UK premier. Stephen
Horne and Frank Bockius have played for a number of those screenings and their
familiarity with this singular film was in evidence throughout.
Directed by Fridrikh Ermler,Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-78721253980958674632018-10-19T00:33:00.001-07:002018-10-19T00:33:39.862-07:00The shock of the old… The Great Victorian Moving Picture Show, with Bryony Dixon, John Sweeney and his Biograph Band, London Film Festival 2018
This was the most unusual Archive Gala I’ve seen at the
London Film Festival and one of the most thrilling: silent films at the BFI IMAX
and all from 1896-1901 …but they’re not even in colour or in 3D?! These restorations
of 60-68mm original film and in some cases negatives, didn’t need any further
enhancements and, accompanied by John Sweeney’s gorgeous and evocative score,
we were pulled Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-38318987277704524372018-10-14T05:41:00.001-07:002018-10-16T01:28:58.004-07:00The big finish… The Chess Player (1927), Mark Fitz-Gerald with San Marco Orchestra, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto! Pordenone, Day Eight
That was the way to bow out, thousands of soldiers on
horseback running at and around the camera as they charge, quick cuts of faces
in battle, sword slashes, men falling… all as Edith Jehanne’s character plays
the Polish anthem on her piano, envisaging a triumph as the San Marco Orchestra
played Henri Rabaud’s original score at full volume.
It’s been a grand – exhausting - week and this Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-21639461032268774102018-10-13T03:06:00.001-07:002018-10-13T03:07:56.446-07:00Pola energy lights up Le Giornate del Cinema Muto! Pordenone, Day Seven
The sky was falling in, lava exploding from a volcano,
baddies running around, horses flying, a heroine being menaced by a lady with a
whip, snake were coming out of rocks… it felt like the end of days and John
Sweeney was pummelling the Teatro Verdi’s Fazioli piano with the most
remarkable ferocity. John’s fierce clusters were totally controlled and there
were variations in theme and Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-78092919978452432902018-10-12T02:50:00.001-07:002018-10-12T02:56:33.514-07:00Desert song... Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone, Day Six<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-43872224696179232282018-10-09T00:19:00.000-07:002018-10-09T00:25:08.778-07:00Pauline Frederick’s tears… plus, It’s War!! Pordenone Day Three
One day from Hasselqvist Tuesday and things were turning very
nasty in the USA… why are things always so ornery over there Mr Lincoln? This was part the third of Stahl’s ode to Abe, A Call to Arms (1917) in
which Benjamin Chapin’s Lincoln, faced with the revolt of the southern states,
wrestles with having to break the promise of none-violence made on his mother’s
death bed.
It’s well Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-20991917750256054042018-10-07T15:57:00.000-07:002018-10-07T16:29:33.601-07:00Every day is like Sunday… Honest presidents, Red Hotels, wind and mountains. Pordenone Day Two
And so, the festival begins properly on day two with a
mild hangover, sleep depravation and the unreasoned compulsion that it is vital
to see everything.
We also started off with The Three Tenors of British
silent film accompaniment: Brand, Horne and Sweeney and all three swung like
jazz-age musketeers on the Verdi’s sensational piano: a reminder of the strength
in depth and sheer varietyIthankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-70738800467271608912018-10-06T17:33:00.002-07:002018-10-06T17:33:56.206-07:00My ship is coming in... Captain Salvation (1927) with Philip Carli, Orchestra San Marco, Pordenone Giornate del Cinema Muto
This was my film of the day without a doubt as it was the
only film I saw today (thanks London fog etc) but others would be hard-pressed
to compete with the visceral visuals of a larger than life Lars Hanson, massive
Marceline Day, super-sized Pauline Starke and the gigantic sounds of Philip Carli with a full orchestra.
Lars Hanson, was the poster boy for last year’s festival
but, Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-48301060395942123402018-10-06T10:20:00.003-07:002018-10-06T10:20:46.260-07:00The home fires, burning… Blighty (1927), BFI with Costas Fotopoulos
A film about the Great War that doesn’t feature any
battlefield action, Blighty was
originally to be called Apres le Guerre
which more accurately reflects the intended audience than the action. It’s
pretty much all about the Home Front and is a like a silent-WWI version of a Family At War.
In his introduction, King’s College’s Dr Lawrence Napper,
author of The Great War in British CinemaIthankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-8416784913129072732018-10-05T07:41:00.001-07:002018-10-05T07:41:11.113-07:00Gently down the stream... L'hirondelle et la mésange (1920), Barbican with Stephen Horne and Elizabeth Jane-Baldry
In her introduction, the BFI’s Bryony Dixon compared André
Antoine to Mike Leigh in that he worked with a core of professional actors
mixed with amateurs and presumably improvised parts of his film in the pursuit
of realism. Antoine perhaps succeeded to well with this film as it was refused
distribution for lacking contemporary saleability.
There were no stage sets in the film and it Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-80856841084578455802018-10-05T05:11:00.001-07:002018-10-05T05:49:37.463-07:00Duty and sacrifice… Nelson (1918)/Zeebrugge (1924), Cinema No. 6 with Stephen Horne and Martin Pyne
In which silent
Londoners come down to the seaport in cars, momentarily confuse HMS Warrior
with Victory and enjoy a slap-up fish and chips supper between naval adventures.
My cousin Bruce
is a Royal Marine, he flies helicopters and has served in Afghanistan and Iraq
in his time: a lad from a South Liverpool comprehensive who is now a Colonel
and even helped teach a prince how to fly. I Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-83247126047986726072018-09-27T09:09:00.003-07:002018-09-27T09:09:57.808-07:00Are we being served? Au Bonheur des Dames (1930), Stephen Horne, Kennington Bioscope
Every so often you just get blown away and tonight, even
after so much recent film, Julien Duvivier’s final silent film coupled with
Stephen Horne’s multi-tasked and richly varied accompaniment, duly removed our
socks and deposited them somewhere near the Oval.
Au Bonheur des
Dames looks and feels like total silent film incorporating so many
techniques of mature silent film – German Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-26827455610339564322018-09-22T02:52:00.002-07:002018-09-24T06:34:48.169-07:00We have an anchor… Arcadia (2018) out now on BFI DVD
"It’s a country which
for centuries has enjoyed a special fame, there’s nowhere else like it on
Earth…"
A few seem to have confused this film with a conservative
view of old England but the more I view Arcadia
the more it’s clearly a call to ground ourselves: the answer being “in the
soil” and not the rituals and hierarchies that have developed around ownership
and those who work on the Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-63853574623187344352018-09-13T12:12:00.002-07:002018-09-14T01:38:28.823-07:00Meet the ancestors... Book now for the BFI London Film Festival.
Booking is now open for the 2018 London Film Festival and it's a special year for silent film.
The Archive Gala will be a spectacular glimpse of our Great-Grandparents' lives in the IMAX screening of The Great Victorian Picture Show, a compilation of films from 1897 to 1901 all taken from 68mm film (four times the size of ordinary 35mm) which has captured so much detail from the samples I Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-24366519555062700722018-09-10T03:17:00.001-07:002018-09-13T07:00:45.635-07:00Lulu and Lili, Clara and Curt… Kennington Bioscope Silent Weekender 2018, Day Two
Let’s start at the end with a hi-energy workout from
luminous Lili Damita abetted by livewire Curt Bois. Curt is not the leading man
in The Golden Butterfly (1926) but he is the one who really clicks with the
leading lady both as a dancer – if that is indeed him lifting Lil high and perfectly
straight into the air – but especially as characters; eye-rolls and flicks of
the hands, the littleIthankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1620252903929641270.post-7987130989330377422018-09-09T01:23:00.000-07:002018-09-09T05:28:58.105-07:00Dogs and Alligators… Kennington Bioscope Silent Weekender 2018, Day One
There’s a grand tradition of animal acting at the Bioscope and this
third silent “weekender” carried this on in some style: two different dogs, a
host (a “pool”?) of alligators as well as hair: not a hare, just hair but it’s
close enough for my quality control.
Day One also featured maestro John Sweeney playing for four programmes
and largely for films he hadn’t seen; the fact that he Ithankyouhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02086320524288957830noreply@blogger.com0